Actually, got to it sooner, lol.
I do agree that selfishness can be looked at as one of the key ingredients in nearly every crime one human commits against another. Also key is the use of oxygen. I've never heard of anyone who doesn't breathe oxygen committing a crime against anyone else. Water drinking, as well. Nobody, and I mean nobody, who doesn't drink water, ever does anything fucked up to anybody on this planet.
My philosophy is that it is our ‘purpose’ to become enlightened and transcend our physical bodies so that ALL OF US join the ‘whole’ again, so that the illusion of separateness (and the prison it creates) is done away with. It must be all because we are all One.
“We” have a set amount of resources to use as tools (to exist – air, water, food) and have no choice but to consume these if we want to exist long enough to become enlightened and transcend. Knowing that you are consuming the air for the purpose of reaching enlightenment (or helping others do this) is not selfish because it’s absolutely necessary to reach this end goal.
Note that a truly unselfish, loving person would be willing – at any moment – to sacrifice his/her life if they found it necessary for the greater good of the whole. I am not one of these people
Very few are..
Essentially, what I'm getting at is that selfishness is a given. Whether you believe in a universal one'ness, as in your case, or aren't sure what to believe, as in my case, you must acknowledge that the fact of the matter, as according to the physical reality we can observe via basic sensory input, is that man is not a hive-minded creature. That is, we don't seem to act via a communal consciousness, but rather each human seems to have its own individual ideas and experiences. We all look at the world through our own window and no other.
We differ on beliefs here. I believe the separateness is an illusion, and we are blinded by this fact due to the dense, low vibrational nature of this “dimension” – if you want to call it. Although rare, many sages have recorded or spoke about their “enlighted” experience, and once they are able to physically transcend into a higher vibrational plane, things like knowing what the whole is thinking (one consciousness) becomes possible. I cannot describe it firsthand because I’ve never experienced this.
Given that this is undeniably the natural state of man, selfishness is a conundrum that can no more be escaped than the need to breathe. Every single decision that any human being makes is an act of selfishness. Every single decision satisfies a value constructed by the decider's individual consciousness. Even "unselfish" acts.
I definitely never said it would be easy, and completely realize that the perceived natural state is to be selfish. However, people have transcended the ego, and the experience is said to be life-changing and something one cannot “reverse”. Once you transcend, only unselfish love – for everything – makes sense. It is said Jesus was one of these people, which (to me) makes sense.
If one person can do it, the potential is there for everyone to do it.
Every time you've ever given anyone anything, you were still acting selfishly. You gave what you gave because you -wanted- to give it. Whatever it was that you gave, you valued the results of giving it to its recipient more than you valued what it cost you to do so. Every single action you initiate is geared toward manipulating your environment to more fully represent your individual values at any given moment. Period. This is inescapable.
But when you have 3 pieces of bread and you share it with your neighbor for no reason other than you feel compassion for him, isn’t that just a small step in the direction of wholeness? In other words, you’re treating him like you’d treat yourself. You and him are the same. He feels good, you feel good. Right?
Now, let's logic our way along, here. . . If selfishness is an inescapable reality, -and- you say that selfishness is the root of all evil, then essentially what you're saying is that the root of all evil is the very nature of reality. This is simply not a useful observation. I'm moved to say something along the lines of, "And if frogs had wings. . . "
It’s not “inescapable”. There are people who are enlightened and are willing to do anything – and I mean anything – for the betterment and evolution of mankind, even if it means self-sacrifice, torture, death, etc. Again, it’s a rare condition, but attainable. Again, I’m not one of those people, but I’m trying my best to reach that height.
We believe this to be the "nature of reality" from our (perceived) individual vantage point.
Even if one is to buy into your religious view of one'ness, the elimination of selfish'ness is still the -holy shit- long route to solving anything. If Jesus is an example of someone who achieved enlightened selflessness, and so is the Buddha. . . How many Buddha's and Christs have come along in the entire history of man? Half a dozen? A dozen? A hundred? There's over 6 billion people alive -right now-.
I completely, completely agree Not2B. It’s an extremely difficult and incredibly crazy goal to reach for. I have no idea how and if it would occur. But if you truly believe this is our ‘purpose’, there is nothing else worth working towards. Also, I find it neat how globalization has pushed us closer to this goal. How many people in 1500 were environmentalists and worried about “preserving forests” for reasons other than selfishness? We live in interesting times. Who knows what the future will hold..
The love of money is just as useless of a response. Money is simply a tool to simplify trading so that, if you grow apples for instance, you don't have to find someone who grows greens AND needs apples in particular in order to get your greens, or someone who has access to drinking water AND needs apples in order to quench your thirst. Money is simply a universal conversion rate for the fruit of your labor.
Money in it of itself is not “evil”. It’s not anything really. It comes down to the reason you want the money. If a guy wants to make a $10 million so that he can start some sort of teaching program that will help and better society – that is not selfish. If a guy needs to make $x to buy food because he’s trying to stay alive and reach a higher plane of thinking (or help others, because he’s at least partially enlightened) – that’s not selfish.
But what is selfish is wanting to make $10 million so you and your family can live comfortably, go on leisure trips, etc. Those things might not be the most horrible of horrible things, or overall all that harmful, but at the end of the day it’s a form of selfishness that does nothing to help the whole achieve universal consciousness. If you believe - like me - that our only purpose here is to rejoin the universal consciousness, than any dollar, moment, ect you spend on leisure - personal enjoyment - is "wasted" due to selfishness. It accomplished nothing but make "you" feel good.
Now again, "resting" or whatever for the purpose of reducing stress so that you can more effectively do your duty at a later time is something different..
Again, I am no sage. I do leisure activities all the time. Just want to note this.
Thus, if you say that the love of money is the root of all evil, you're saying that it's evil to love the fruit of your labor. Anyone who doesn't love the fruit of their labor is either in the wrong line of work or has no pride.
Ideally at any given moment we should be doing the things that better help the whole reach a higher consciousness. Obviously, it’s easier said than done, but I’ve read that once you “tap into” this higher plane of thinking, the things that are “necessary” in your time here become more recognizable. Again, I’m just a normal Joe so can’t really elaborate.
Personally, I accept that I am selfish. I help the people I care to help when I care to help them which, thankfully for the people in my life, is pretty often. Also, I -love- money. First off, I love the concept of it: I love that societies past were wise enough to come up with a system that allowed for people to provide highly specialized services that don't directly produce any physical product and -still- live well via that labor. I love that societies past came up with an economic system that saved us all insane amounts of time in terms of how much of it we have to spend simply fulfilling our own physical upkeep (cuz if we all had to farm and trade our wares at a bazaar, holy shit there goes all our free time).
I also love wealth. I love having it. I'd love to have more of it, and it has nothing to do with wanting to take it from others, or wanting them to have less of it. I simply love to be able to acquire what I want when I want it (the fun thing about that property is, again, it's something we all share. Everybody wants to be able to acquire or achieve what they want, when they want it, period. The only difference is in -what- is wanted). Also, the love of wealth is often spurred by what your philosophy would consider some level of selflessness. One of the things I love about having wealth is that, if someone I care about is in need, I have the means of helping them. Believing that we're all one and deferring the wealth to the world as a whole isn't going to cause the world to pay my mother's rent if she's short one month. If I got that money on hand, tho? Mom's got a roof over her head. In short, being the individual in control of the wealth allows one to channel that wealth toward the purposes that they consider worthy as opposed to standing idly by and letting the chips fall where they may. If you seek to better the world via any means that is realistically plausible, love of wealth is almost inevitable.
I’m the same in a lot of ways, however just know that any resource “you” have that you’re not using to reach your goal of “enlightenment” (or helping others reach this) is technically being “wasted”. These are just my beliefs.
Anything you have is something that someone else does not have. Everything is circular. And it gets tricky; you want to help your mom, and will probably protect her at all costs (even if it means screwing someone else over) and although I am the same way I recognize that this is just another form of selfishness. A truly enlightened person will only be doing work to “help” the whole. They have no favorites, because “everyone” is their favorite. It’s a difficult concept to grasp, know!
Personally, I say that the primary roots of evil (at least those ones that can reasonably be combatted) are dishonesty and the desire to subjugate one another. Even if your religion is true, history is populated by a lot more honest, live-and-let-live types than it is by people who've achieved the level of selflessness of Jesus or the Buddha. This leads me to believe that, even if true selflessness is possible, achieving a mindset of honesty and losing the desire to force everyone else to obey your values are sure as **** a shorter route than messianic detachment.
But aren’t dishonesty and subjugation branches of selfishness? If you believe that everything is one whole, there is no need to lie for any malicious reason because doing that is only benefiting the self. We lie because we don’t want to look bad as an individual. We lie to hide what we perceive to be our own personal shortfalls. Don’t you agree?
And power/domination (subjugation) for ANY reason other than helping the whole? Are those selfish traits? Why else would you want or crave power?
Think about it, though. . . if the lovers of wealth only acquired said wealth via honest trade and didn't use it to subjugate the initiative of others, selfishness wouldn't be a problem.
But if people are acquiring wealth for no reason other than bettering the “whole”, that’s not selfish.
Mind you, I'm not saying my fixes are particularly realistic, simply a higher-probability option. Dishonesty and subjugation are things society can realistically combat. Acts of dishonesty (theft, fraud, etc) can be punished and deterred, as can acts that subjugate the initiative of others (theft, murder, kidnapping, assault, etc) via the most basic of societal laws and standards. The life-view of every individual, on the other hand, isn't something that can be controlled at all. When humans decided to travel overseas, it was more realistic to build a vessel to deal with the realities of maritime travel than to wish for the continents to be closer together.
Lastly, minor point. You seem to misunderstand the basic premise of Libertarianism, which is individualism. Not only would Libertarianism not conflict with the existence of selfish individuals, it's actually a system that embraces and facilitates the selfishness of the individual. The whole idea of Libertarianism is that government should exert limited control over the people so that each individual has the liberty to pursue the values of their -own- conscience. Libertarianism -is- selfishness in action.
Well, this post isn’t necessarily promoting “libertarianism”, however I will say that the ONLY way a libertarian society would truly work in harmony is for ALL the people to be unselfishly loving of one another. Right?
Again, this is not a political thread; it’s just spiritual and conceptual.
Thanks for the response!
